Five distinguished teachers visiting Princeton this year

Posted January 2, 2008; 11:37 a.m.

by Staff

Five scholars from around the country have come to Princeton this year as part of the 250th Anniversary Visiting Professorships for Distinguished Teaching program.

The visiting professorships were established as part of the University's 250th anniversary celebration in 1996. Visitors are selected for their demonstrated excellence in teaching and their capacity to bring new ideas in undergraduate teaching to the campus. Each will teach an undergraduate course and engage in other activities aimed at improving teaching at Princeton, such as workshops for faculty and graduate students, demonstration lectures and classroom visits.

Kathryn Morgan of the University of California-Los Angeles, who is the Stanley Kelley Jr. Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching in classics. Morgan is a leading scholar of Greek history as well as archaic and classical Greek literature and culture, with a particular interest in myths. Her current research is in the study of Greek tyranny. She is teaching a course on classical mythology this fall.

Stuart Sherman of Fordham University, who is the Stanley Kelley Jr. Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching in English. A distinguished scholar of British and comparative literature and a prolific writer, Sherman is teaching a course on 18th-century drama this fall.
Marina Van Zuylen of Bard College, who is the Stanley Kelly Jr. Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching in French and Italian. Van Zuylen focuses her research on the relationship between ethics, aesthetics and social life in 19th-century Europe. She will teach a course on modern French poetry in the spring.

Umesh Vazirani of the University of California-Berkeley, who is the William R. Kenan Jr. Visiting Professor for Distinguished Teaching in computer science. Vazirani's research interests include quantum computation, computational complexity theory, randomized algorithms and computational foundations of randomness. He is teaching a course on quantum physics, qubits and nanoscience this fall.